Saturday, May 31

We've had a good 1st day of working. We went to a village about a 30 minute drive from Villa Milagro. You have to measure distance to a place by minutes, because milage is decieving considering the roads here. Actually, we drove on blacktop most of the way to Marcobamba today. Things started a little bit slow, but word soon spread and business picked up. We saw a total of 164 patients today, which was not bad at all. It was good to have a somewhat slow day on the first day to get the kinks out of the operation. We didn't see anything much out of the ordinary, mainly the usual headaches, backaches, stomachaches due to spicy foods and parasites, and of course many toothaches. Everyone is tired. A few brave souls dug down deep and found enough energy to go to a wedding at Monte Sion. The wedding invitation said 7 pm, but Larry and Doyne advised that they never start on time. Martha Robertson says it's tradition for the bride to be 30 minutes late. However, the group went ahead and left here to be at the church at 7. They returned just a few minutes ago at 10 pm. Apparently the wedding started an 1 1/2 hours late...and then the electricity went off during the ceremony. They said it was a beautiful ceremony, however, none stayed for the reception.

Friday May 30--Cajamarca

We have all made it to Cajamarca without any problems. We arrived about 5:30 and are settling in. Looking forward to a yummy supper and have already spied some pies with 6 inch meringue on the counter for dessert. Yum! Will be leaving early in the morning to work about 30 minutes away in Marcobamba...don't know if I spelled that right, but since nobody knows where that's at (including me), I figure it doesn't matter.

May 30, 2008--Lima, Peru

Just a quick note to let everyone know all we made it safe and sound...and with all our luggage!! We had a delay in Little Rock and almost didn´t make the connection in Atlanta. I think we all have decided we need to be in a little better shape before we try to run another marathon through an airport with backpacks and carry-on´s again. We´ll be spending the night here and heading back to the airport around noon Friday to catch the afternoon flight to Cajamarca.